Minecraft Prequel: The Beginnings & The Immortals
by ihearthorses6000
Summary: This is the prequel/sequel to the Minecraft Interviews (/s/9595617/1/The-Minecraft-Interviews) and believe me, it's gonna be fun. The life of a creeper, enderman, and an ender dragon are all told here. Also, there's some Herobrine as well. CAPS LOCK may or may not be involved...
1. A Strange Introduction(plus a vampire)

"Hey people!" Ashley shouted down into a void of stars. "Sup. I know, it's been about a million years. Well, I'm gonna get da Minecraft sequel/prequel up and running, but I might not go on it too often, because I'm also gonna start a Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus Fanfic, soooo yeah. (Hint hint, nudge nudge, if you tell me who you ship, I MIGHT put them in there...hint hint, nudge nudge.) Anyway, I think it's time we met some old friends."

She snapped her fingers and both Herobrine and Steve appeared, sitting on weird floating chairs in the universe-looking void thing. Steve was wearing a Hawaiian outfit, which, unsurprisingly, looked amazing on him. Herobrine would have laughed at the sight of Steve in a straw hat and sunglasses that hardly fit his face, but he was a little more concerned with the fact that he was sitting about five feet away from Ashley, which could only mean one thing...

"Ladies and gentlemen, readers and characters and OCs and some kind of cat that's reading this for whatever reason (yeah I see you! But seriously why are you blocking your owner's view? I get it's what cats do but seriously) and whoever else, IT. HAS. BEGUN!" Ashley smiled wickedly.

"Begun? What's begun? What?" Steve still looked utterly slow.

But Herobrine understood all too well. "Oh. Shit. Already?"

"Language, Herobrine. It shouldn't be so bad this time. If it makes you feel any better, there won't be any OCs. (In this story, at least...) Besides, you're mostly a badass in the prequel. You were pretty naughty in the past, huh?"

"'In the past'?" Herobrine repeated.

"Pfft! He's a freaking pain in the butt even now!" Steve blurted.

"Oh, shush. I think we should just get down to it, if you two insist on being ridiculous." Ashley started typing on her computer.

"I feel so much joy, I can't even express it properly." Herobrine sighed.

"You use that excuse a lot, you know." Steve said.

"Come talk to me when I care."

"BOTH OF YOU. STOP. OKAY? I have to give da readers a summary of what the sequel will be about, so here it is:

"THE SUMMARY OF THE PAST

1: the evilness of Caps Lock (admit it. It's the screaming voice in your head. YOU KNOW, THIS ONE, THE ONE THAT SUDDENLY stops when it's not caps lock anymore. THAT evil voice.)

2: the immortals and gods, (Father of Feathers, Mother of Minecraft, Sister of Something, Brother of Something Else, Step-aunt in-law's sister's dog's father of confusion, blah blah blah, etc) because they all have a story.

3: an explanation of what happened to Ender Dragon

4: an explanation for Enderman's past. (It isn't pleasant, and this is BEFORE I started putting him in stories. Enderman; so it's about thirty seven times worse now. Ashley; shut up.)

5: why Ghast really loves smores. (Yes, I know they're marshmallows and chocolate and gram crackers, but there's ANOTHER reasonable reason. Ha, see what I did there? It wasn't reasonable, but I totally just destroyed reason, because like, reasonable reason and...and I should probably stop now...)

6: what happened when all the reason (insert smiley face here) in Jessica's world disappeared.

7: (I need another because seven is a lucky number. I think, I don't use the number seven very often, so, here goes) how Spider and Skeleton met. (What a story...)

"Wait," Herobrine broke in, "Where do I fit in any of this? Almost nothing has anything to do with me."

"Actually, Herobrine, you're involved in most of it. It was kind of your fault Skeleton and Spider met. You had a part in Enderman's past. You're definitely involved with Jessica," Ashley grinned a kind of grin that made even the vampire resist a shudder, "and you're half immortal yourself, so, yes, you're involved in this. Oh, and you have a huge part in how evil CAPS LOCK is."

Herobrine winced. "CAPS LOCK is a freaking demon! And that's coming from me."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Sure, sure, caps lock is SO bad."

"You haven't had a fight with it yet, have you?" Herobrine sighed. "You're lucky."

"Whatever, people. So, to start off the new year tomorrow, I'll post a chapter. My new year's resolution is to post more often, and if not, just to write more often, in general. Oh, and to make a list of good things that happen in my life. So. Yeah."

Herobrine sighed. "Can I go now?"

"For one night, and one night only, yeah, you can go. Your last night of freedom, so you two had better enjoy it!"

Before either of them could say anything, they both disappeared, but Herobrine was noticeably grinning.

PPPPEEEEAACCCEEE OUT!

-ihearthorses6000


	2. An Enderman's Rainy Day

{QUICK NOTE: Guys, help meh and don'ta judge! I have a question. Can someone explain vanilla Minecraft? I've heard of it and I think I know what it is but I'm not sure and it's a little confusing, cuz, like, since when can Minecraft have flavors? I mean, YES PLEASE. (P.S. I'm asking you because I'm too lazy to google it, and also, MAYBE, I'm just trying to see what you guys will say about it. ;D ) }

IMPORTANT. THIS IS IN CAPS SO YOU BETTER READ THIS ONE TOO. Heya guys! Doing something different this chapter. Okay, so, the Endermen and Enderwomen are very present, in-the-moment type of people. So, this chapter is going to be first person and in the present tense (the beginning is going to be explaining stuff in past though, but, yeah, whatever). I try to do that more often but past tense comes more naturally for me, so. ANYWAY. Remember the Dark Ones, the Enderguys/girls, Lavender, Luna, Shadow, and Dagger? They're in this...

And they're very naughty people-er, Endermen. No, Enderwomen/Endermen. No that doesn't work...OH I KNOW.

ENDERPEOPLE.

Anyway, the narrator/enderperson/speaker/whateverthehellelse is Elise, a tiny Endergirl, the daughter of the very Enderman that you can meet in the Minecraft Interviews.

Sooo, ennnnjoy!

* * *

I'm so stupid.

I hate being stupid. It's really annoying.

I hadn't listened to my mom. I'm sure she would be mad. If she saw me now, she would probably scream my name, and then run towards me and then hug me while telling me that I would be grounded for the rest of eternity.

It's actually kind of sad, how the smallest thing can turn into something so much bigger.

She told me to stay inside. I didn't listen. Everyone else was asleep. I couldn't sleep. My father and mother and baby brother were all snoring -in my brother's case, cooing- in our cave in The End. I couldn't sleep, no matter what I did. My mom was sitting in the corner, where she had watched me when I asked her if I could go outside. She had said no, but she was tired, muttering to herself; I couldn't hear her very well. I think she said something like, 'The End is dangerous after dark'. Either that, or, 'The Weekend is fabulous with bark'.

So I had sat there until her eyes closed. Then I stood up. I walked outside. I kept hearing noises. I didn't know what it was. It sounded like whispers. Somebody said my name, 'Elise'. It was either that, or the smell of rust that got me walking faster. I turned a corner. I couldn't see anything.

One invisible hand grabbed my arm. Another one, much colder, grabbed my other one. I wanted to scream. Someone covered my mouth. I bit them. They didn't budge. Someone had hissed, "Go." I felt myself get teleported to the Overworld, ripping away the darkness and ripping away my home. They started walking. I think I was walking, but I didn't remember it. I felt ditached, like my legs would just keep moving. I was closing my eyes, not looking at anything, ignoring them.

And now I'm finally letting all of it register. I'm finally getting over the shock and the panic and the dread and actually looking around for a second.

I'm not liking what I see. It's raining.

Ugh. I hate rainy days.

I hated, hate, and will always hate the rain.

It burns like fire, except fire eventually dies. The skies seems to produce endless little drops of needles, stinging on my skin and colliding with the ground. The best solution is to stay inside The End. But it's always boring, staying inside your home world, doing nothing all day. Of course, it's better than dying, as far as I knew. Or so father said. I mean, I've never died.

Still, there's never a lot to do inside The End. Sure, there's the other Enderman, but the place is unusually crowded on rainy days. Usually, they were free to go about as they pleased, as long as they brought back one block with them and gave it to Queen Enderia. I have no idea what she does with it, but that's the rule. Maybe she's building some magnificent palace with it. Maybe she gives it to the Mooshrooms. Really, after the war with the animals, the Endermen race were -and still are- up to their necks in debt. Or maybe Enderia eats it. I don't know.

Still, considering where I am, now, I would rather the world be rainy for the rest of my life.

I have a suspicion of who they are. I'm scared I'm right.

At first I don't know what to say. Okay, that's a lie. I know what I need to know, what I need to ask. But I'm too afraid to. So I just listen to the feet slosh in the mud. Apparently, these guys thought ahead, and brought umbrellas. I thought they would just give me a smaller one. Instead, one of them grabbed me and shoved me under his. I don't like it. I have to be close to him in order to stay away from the water, but the guy smells like...Gods of Minecraft, I don't even know. Bleach? Soap? The black stuff mom used to try to cook (before my dad gave up on eating that and started cooking himself)? Rust? He smells like rust.

I close my eyes, and stop biting on my tongue so hard. I taste what tastes like rust. Then I realize the man next to me smells -reeks- of blood.

I shudder farther away from him. A drop of water falls on my arm. Instinctually, my body flickers, trying to teleport anywhere, but away from the rain. I try to use it to my advantage. I can escape. I can teleport. If I just try.

But I can't even do that. 'Besides, says a very voice in my head, where would you go, if you could? You can't teleport home unless someone else teleports and you touch them. And everywhere around you is wet.

I ignore that voice a lot.

'Teleporting takes practice,' I could hear dad telling me. 'You won't be able to do it without using a lot of energy until you're older. But you should still try.'

He always said that it's easier if I imagine what the place smells like, what it feels like, what I can hear. But I can't imagine home when I'm stuck in a thunderous rain storm that sounds like metal slamming into the ground. I can't imagine the smell of cinnamon or crispy chicken when the man next to me smells like blood. Why? Why does he smell like blood?

And all I can feel is the cold. But I imagine my mother. She was always warm, especially on rainy days. When I couldn't leave The End, I would find her and stay with her until it was over. I just want to do that now. I just want to close my eyes when she's next to me, and I want to forget about anything. I just want to go home.

As if there isn't enough water around us, my eyes start to water. I hold my elbows and stop. It hurts to try to teleport, it hurts to go too far out and feel the rain, it hurts to cry in front of these freaks, it hurts.

I hadn't noticed, but they had stopped. And now they stare at me. Two of them look like they might try to grab me, to stop me from teleporting, but the one next to me holds up a hand to stop them. "Let her try."

"I...I can't..." I close my eyes and try one more time. I feel my stomach lurch. I shiver. Another raindrop falls on me. My stomach did a flop. Nothing happens. Nothing. And it stills hurts.

It's hopeless. The voice comes back. You can't escape.

I open my eyes and decide to actually look at my captors. Because if -no, when- my dad saves me, he will want to know what the people around me looked like. And I will tell him, 'one of them had a light purple cloak and eyes. Another one had a light blue cloak and eyes Those two were girls. The other two were boys. The first boy had bright red eyes and a bright red cloak.

The one next to me, the one that smelled like blood, daddy, had green and gold on his cloak. His eyes were green, a really, really bright green.'

Their cloaks are weird. They have the colors as the outlines, and the rest is mostly black. Not that stylish, in my opinion.

What else will I need to tell my father? Um...

I look around at them, not sure who to ask. Out of them all, the one that seems the most friendly is the one that acts as the leader, the one beside me, the one that smells like blood.

I look into his eyes, and regret it.

I hate the eyes that he has, too. Those green eyes are like looking into two bright, blinding pits of nothing. Just nothing.

I glare up at him. "Who are you?"

He smiles. It doesn't touch the nothing in his eyes. "I'm not even sure if you would really like to know."

"But I _need_ to know." I replied.

"Oh, she _needs_ to know, boss, better tell her." The one with red eyes grinned. I can't help but notice that he's always grinning, any time I look at him.

But I don't look away from the one next to me, I don't stop glaring at those green eyes. He stares back.

Let me tell you a little thing about enderpeople; we're a teeny bit aggressive.

We take our staring contests very, very seriously. My dad told me this scary story that two friends had a staring contest, and one of them won, and he bragged about it, acting like he just gained dominance over him. The loser didn't like what the winner had to say about him. Two days later, one of them was dead.

I don't know if that's true or not, but it might as well be. A staring contest with a stranger, someone not an enderperson, can mean the stranger is hostile, and usually it's best to either run or respond with more hostility. And enderpeople don't like running away. A staring contest with an enemy is worse; at the least, looking away or blinking means submission. At the most...I don't even know. I don't want to know.

Really, the only kind of 'safe' staring contest is one with a friend that you might be betting with or something. It's a lot more playful. It's one of the best ways to pass the time. Plus, I can stop blinking for up to an hour. My dad's record is half a day and twelve minutes. My mom's is half a day and thirteen minutes. She always beats him, at just about anything. Except for cooking. Yeah...basically, we enderpeople invented staring contests.

Or maybe the one with the bright green eyes invented them. He's really, really good. But I can't look away, and neither can he. I refuse to lose to him.

"Boss, we gotta go-" The red one spoke up.

"Oh, shut up." The 'boss' hissed without looking away. "Soul stealing isn't any fun if you don't mess around first."

"'Soul stealing'?I step backwards, and I feel the rain at my back. It's freezing. It burns. I jump out of it and nearly bump into 'boss' and stop myself because I'm terrified of touching him and then lean more towards the rain again.

"Oh, see, now you've scared her." The red one rolled his eyes.

Soul stealing. I had heard that phrase only once, and coupled with one name.

The Dark Ones.

"Oh holy golden shit of Mr. Sprinkles, God of Sarcasm and Shittyness!" I yelled, tumbling backwards into the rain again and trying to stand the pain, trying to prefer the pain.

"Hey there, stop it with the cursing, girl. The God of Sprinkles doesn't like that." The one with blue eyes aid.

I don't hear her. I don't hear anything. I've been in the rain too long, without being able to teleport. The water isn't just in my skin. It feels like its chilled down to bone. I had been shivering, I had been giving them all terrified glances, but now I stop. I can't move. My heart drops.

The 'boss' seizes my wrist and yanks me out of the rain. "Don't go dying on us, now."

"But you're the..." I catch my breath and realize just how much danger I'm in. "You're the Dark Ones."

The smile on the red one's face widens, even though it already looks like he's going to stretch his face too far.

The boss nodded. "Yes. That's Lavender, that's Luna," He gestured to the purple and blue girls, "that's Shadow, and I'm Dagger."

I don't move, not until Dagger and the others start walking again, to a place I don't know where. I don't know why they're walking and not teleporting. I start walking towards the umbrella after I'm under the rain again. I have to walk fast to catch up to them. I don't want to come. I don't know what awaits me when we get there but I don't want to know.

"Speed it up," Shadow sees me lagging.

I ignore him and look at Dagger. "Is all of it true, then?"

"Is all of what true?" Dagger doesn't slow down or look back at me.

"What they say about the Dark Ones. The soul stealers. How...how you have to beat it out of them. How they have to still be alive. How you use it to gain power."

"Power," Shadow snorts. "You don't know power until you've made soul sacrifices to Enderia's Eye. You don't know power until you're so strong you're almost a goddamn God."

Dagger ignores him too. "It's true." He glances sideways at me. "Don't look so scared. It might not kill you. It'll just hurt like the Nether's given you a bitch slap and accompanied it with an axe."

My steps were starting to slow again.

"Move it, little one, we're almost there." Dagger hisses, shoving me forward.

"If we have to get there so quickly, for whatever reason, why don't you guys just teleport?" I say, getting annoyed and angry and depressed and terrified. My stomach is trying to perform multiple dives and front flips and is failing terribly. I'm sure the rain is on me again, because I feel something cold at the back of my neck, but when I look, there's nothing there.

Dagger gestures to the area. "It's enchanted. It's impossible to teleport into. We teleported to the border. It's a kind of place that needs to be isolated, not something you can just accidently come upon."

"Oh."

I feel like I blinked, and then there it was. It didn't look like much. It was a cave. A cave that I would never enter by choice. A cave that could be hidden. A cave that no one should ever want to go in.

They push me in.

They whisper in the dark for a moment. I can't see anything but a black abyss, but I can smell. I don't know what it is I smell, but it's not pleasant.

Then someone grabs me by the shoulder and throw me against something cold. Something even colder is wrapped around my wrists and ankles. I struggle against it and discover it's a bunch of very old and very wet pair of chains.

"Oh, stop it." Dagger's voice chides me.

The panic starts to overflow. I can't think of anything reassuring to say, of anything threatening to say, of anything brave to say. I focus on what's true. "My...my dad will come. He said he would. He'll come here and he'll...he'll get me."

Dagger grins. "I've heard that before. Childish hopes are easily deceived, unfortunately. Then again, they'd be a lot harder to control if those hopes were crushed, I suppose. But I have you under control, so I don't think I have much to worry about that. So I'll just tell you, little one, that almost every child I have come across, at some point, has said that someone will come and save them. The person can either never get here, or never tried. I'm sorry to tell you, but your father will not be coming."

"But he said..." My voice breaks off into a whisper. "He said he would."

He laughs and then flips on a light, revealing a set of shiny metal objects, knives, hammers, chains, nails, spray paint, and old-looking books. He picks up a hammer and plays with it for a moment. "And I also said that none of this will kill you."

* * *

Yes, yes, I'm evil, I'm making you wait, and TOTALLY NOT because I haven't even decided if Elise is gonna survive or not...(I like her, but I'm unfortunately leaning towards 'not'...)

GUYYYYSS.

I need MORE help.

I have a problem.

So, because, as I did in the Minecraft Interviews, I just called the main characters what their species is, (Skeleton, Witherskeleton, etc) should I give them actual names? I mean, I have their names, I originally gave them names but decided against it. But, if I had Enderman going to meet a bunch of other endermen, it could get confusing. SO, do you want me to declare what their names are? Take a vote or somethin', ma peeps.

PPPPEEEEAAAACCCEEEE OUUUTTT!

(why isn't there a key that has a peace sign on it? Like why?)

-ihearthorses6000


	3. Little Soul

**Kay, so last time the author notes were annoyingly long, so I ain't gonna do that again. You guys wanted them to have names, though, so here goes. I'm only going to give you the names of the people in the chapter. (For example, if I were to write a chapter about Creeper in the future, I would include Creeper's name at that time, but I would also include Enderman's name, that I just add on to remind you guys. And really, I'll probably need more reminding than you guys. One of my biggest issues with writing is when I try to change a character's name after having them named something else, and then I end up calling them their old name instead of their new names. I annoy myself, so, uh, yeah.)**

**OKAY that was too long. Sorry, anyway, here's da names.**

**Enderman = Eli. (You will find that most Enderman names start with or end with an E, and if not, at least contain one E. Don't ask me why, it's just what they do.)**

**Enderdragon = Elijah (Enderdragons _sometimes _follow a similar rule, which is that, especially for males, it contains at least one E and one A. For females, usually it's just an A.)**

**LAST THING I SWEAR ON THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER OF MINECRAFT, I'm changing it up this chapter. Now it's in past tense, third person. Those are pretty much my two modes, besides also past tense first person. So, pick which ones you guys prefer. I might just alternate every chapter. I don't know. **

**Anyway, enjoy and all that good stuff! **

* * *

Eli (aka Enderman) swore on his life, he was going to get back what was stolen from him.

The problem was, it was easier said than done.

Eli was disoriented. He couldn't think straight. He was trying not to panic, and he most definitely wasn't succeeding. He shivered from head to toe, like his instincts were asking him, 'why aren't you already teleporting?' And, Gods of Minecraft, he wanted to teleport, and wrap his hands around the thief's neck. But the problem was, the thief had friends. Eli would be hopelessly outnumbered. His only hope was to track the thief the best he could. And he had heard the stories, and knew they were true; the place was enchanted against all teleporting, regardless.

Eli was being nice if he called the thief just a thief. The 'thief' was also a killer, a tormentor. If Eli was too late...

He shook the thoughts off. It wasn't going to help. That wouldn't happen. Eli had promised he'd save her, and he would.

He had left his wife, Enzia, crying at home. He may have been dizzy for a moment and angry enough to make his whole self tremble, but his wife could barely move, crying out at random times.

It seemed better to Eli that his Enzia remained safely in the cave. He told himself he could take care of the thief- but he knew he was lying. He would need help. But what kind of friends could you all on at a time like that?

Eli shouted up to the enderdragon. "Hey, Elijah! I need help, it's an emergency."

Elijah was down in about two seconds. "I heard. Most of The End is panicking, and word gets around fast. I was on my way over to you. What's your plan?"

"I don't know." Eli blurted. He didn't have time to talk. "I have no idea and just..." He tried to take a deep breath, tried to calm down. Like with many things, he didn't succeed. "I have to find her." He felt the tears coming. "I have to."

"Okay, okay, come on, then. Let's not waste time sitting around and talking. I think I might know where to look. It's a long shot." Elijah gestured to his back. "Get on."

Enderdragons were fast. They could travel up to three hundred miles per hour, at top speed.

But it still almost didn't seem fast enough for the enderman. He was used to teleporting, and then, like that, he was there. Instead, he had to take the long way. When it mattered the most, he couldn't just end up there magically, instantly.

* * *

Elise refused to cry.

She had to be brave. She knew her father was coming, any second now. He had promised her. He never broke a promise.

She had told herself that repeatedly. She had told herself she would be fine. She refused to cry. She would not cry...

Then the pain had started.

At first, she felt numb. She saw the hammer come down on her body. Two seconds later, she felt it. A bone-shattering force broke through her body, waves of dizziness overcoming her. The world spun for a moment, and when she could see straight she couldn't think straight. She cried out, repeatedly, as the hammer came down several more times. She had told herself not to cry, but it wasn't voluntary. The force of the weapon slammed the tears out of her. She screamed some pretty God-insulting things at them.

Her screams seemed to have little effect, besides that Shadow was smiling to himself, and didn't seem to care to hide it. Dagger didn't seem to hear it. Luna and Lavender exchanged a glance, and chose then to walk away.

Elise wasn't sure if she could blame them. She was a mess. It had to hardly have been half an hour, but it felt like longer. Her blood pulsed in places she didn't know she had. The hammer was bad enough, but Dagger was beginning to eye the knives to his right.

He frowned thoughtfully. "She's tiny...size three?"

Shadow smiled wickedly. A kind of malice that Elise had never seen was bright, circling in his eyes in a hypnotic dance. "I would say size five."

"We want to make her bleed, Shadow, not kill her, not yet."

"Right, right," Shadow said, spreading his hands. "Your call."

Elise wasn't really listening. She knew whatever pain they were planning on giving her would be worse than what she had at the moment, although, at the time, she could hardly imagine anything worse than what she felt at the moment. It felt like daggers had been placed inside her throat, trying to make it hard for her to breathe. While she gasped with eyes closed and mind reeling, a hot pain pierced into her right shoulder. She was too afraid to look at it, but she was laying in a warm pool of blood. She tried to look at them, tried to see whatever they were picking next, to prepare herself.

Just looking at the knife that Dagger was picking up made her sick. Her vision was dizzy as he came closer.

"Oh, Gods." She coughed, cringing away.

He smiled at her, taking his time in coming over to her and grabbing her wrist. "Don't give me that look. It's not going to do you any good."

"Sorry," She hissed under her breath. "I thought for a second there that it would." She tried to jerk away from him, and only succeeded in hurting herself. She cried out as her shoulder oozed out another wave of blood, and he had an iron grip around her wrist.

Dagger brought the knife to her skin. Shadow almost laughed out loud at the look on her face, her eyes closed and waiting for the anticipated pain.

The knife dug into her skin. Whatever she expected the pain would be like, she underestimated it. Fresh blood splattered to the ground, joining the small pool. Dagger ripped the knife out, and Elise couldn't hold it back. She screamed, jerking and flinching away from him. Again, it did her more harm than good, but she didn't seem to care.

The knife was glowing, or darkening. If it was considered glowing, it was glowing black. There wasn't a speck of blood on it.

"It's time?" Shadow asked hopefully. "My turn?"

Dagger sighed. "I suppose so."

"Oh, Gods." Elise muttered again. "What does _he_ do?"

"Well, basically, he uses a magic spell to invite your soul to come closer towards the surface. Right now, it's safely far, far deep inside your core."

"Not for much longer." Shadow grinned. "Now, where did I put my spell book..."

He grabbed something that looked kind of like a magazine, and flipped over two pages. "Alright, here...inlustratori cordis, anxius animo penitus domicilio ex, exeunt, in lucem. Vadam huc salvom hinc quaere tibi tutum."

She didn't understand it, but Dagger knew the words well, for he himself had once been the one to speak the spells, and it went something like this; pained soul, worried soul, deep inside the home, come out, come out, into the light. it's alright here, it's safe here, it's safe for you to come look.'

Shadow paused and both of them watched for a moment.

Elise didn't know what he was saying, but by his tone, he was almost...coaxing her. How could that voice, that sharp voice, possibly sound gentle? _He must be safe, it must be safe, there can't be any harm here, surely,_ said some insane part of her. She told that part to shut up, very sternly. It hurt to move her arm, but she hugged her elbows and closed her eyes. _He's a monster. He's a monster._

"Egredere, egredere, pusillanimes, spuriae domum." Shadow muttered under his breath.

Suddenly the words were more clear to her as he spoke them again; 'come out, come out, little soul, helpless little home.'

She shook her head and whispered, "No, no..."

Shadow broke into a grin. "She doesn't want to come easily, Dagger. Can I please crank things up a little?"

"Try one more time." Dagger replied.

Shadow sighed. "You've always wanted the most boring option." But again he spoke the words, and again, nothing happened. The voice inside Elise stirred, -_that voice is so soothing, but why_\- but she kept a firm grip around its mouth.

Dagger sighed. "They all just love to make my work harder, don't they? Fine, Shadow. Hurry it up."

Shadow burst into a grin and then came closer, until he was hissing in Elise's ear. This time, she understood the words perfectly well without needing to hear it very much.

"Dolet animula animulae. Audite vocem meam doleat animulae latitat paulo domum."

('Feel pain, little soul, little soul. Obey me or feel pain, little soul hiding within a little home.')

Something pierced inside Elise, starting at her heart and leaving a hot wave of shivers moving over her. Oddly, her chest began to glow, ever so slightly. _Stop!_ The voice was screaming, and Elise's grip on it loosening. _Just make it stop!_

"That's it, that's it, ya stupid girl." Shadow laughed and continued, "'Don't run home, little soul, there's no where else to go. This isn't pain, little soul, this is agony. Come out. Obey me or feel agony. Little home, this is agony.'" (ne descendat in domum, pusillanimes, non quo alio ire. Hoc non est dolor, pusillanimes, hoc dolet. Egredere. Audite vocem meam, vel sentire dolorem. Parva domum, hoc est, dolorem. Fact; you were too lazy to read that. That's okay, I was too.)

A scream choked its way to Elise's lips, and started that way, but ended with her coughing up blood. Her chest wasn't just glowing, she realized. There was a tiny version of her coming out her chest, -_what the heck?_\- with its eyes closed and mouth open in a silent scream. Elise realized she wasn't breathing, and panicked when she realized that she couldn't.

Dagger reached in and grabbed the white glowing version of Elise by the throat. "Alright, Shadow, stop."

"Aw," Shadow said with disappointment. "'Sleep, little soul, sleep with nightmares that keep you deep into rest for a long while. The agony is gone, little soul. Feel numb, feel nothing, little soul.'" (Medicum, anima, quae te alta in somnis somnum diu quies. Agonia sit manus, animule. Libenter torpent, nihil sentire animulae.)

Elise felt like someone had put breathy ice in her chest. Where it had once been so hot, she was suddenly cold. But she was still hot, at the same time, as if that made any sense. She choked on tears and realized she was whimpering like a pathetic baby. She forced herself to stop, forced herself to take somewhat normal breaths.

Dagger grabbed the black, glowing knife and look the sleeping soul in Shadow's arms up and down. It was like a sleeping, white version of Elise, except you couldn't see her feet, which were kind of connected to Elise's feet.

Shadow licked his lips eagerly, staring at Elise's feet. "Can I cut the ties?"

Dagger shook his head. "No, as my answer will always be." He leaned down by her ear, holding the dagger close to her ankle. She thought about moving, but was reminded that it was hopeless, and didn't try. The main thing that scared her was the look on Dagger's face. He wasn't even kind of smiling anymore. There almost a dead look in his eyes, a blank look, like a failed attempt at being sympathetic. His whispers softer than Shadow's as he said, "Expect this to hurt, little soul."

* * *

Eli didn't know how long he had.

Or rather, he didn't know how long his daughter had.

He didn't know what was happening to her, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. But he did know they would pay, they would all pay. And if they ever thought of touching his Elise again- oh Gods of Minecraft, was she okay? What if-

"Hey," Elijah interrupted his thoughts. Eli didn't know how he looked, but it probably wasn't good. Elijah was giving him 'that' look. "It'll be okay. We'll find her. You know me, I'm the fastest there is."

Eli bit his lip too hard; he was tasting blood. "I hate to ask, but...can you go any faster?"

"I hate to answer, for the twelfth time, that this is the fastest I've got, unless you want me to get too tired to go anywhere at all. We'll find her, Eli. We're already in the general area, which is why you can't teleport."

Eli nodded. "Alright, alright," He sighed. "Sorry."

"Just hang in there, okay? We'll find her." Elijah frowned to himself, scanning the ground. It sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

Elijah's guess, his long shot, hadn't been correct. They had tried two other places they could guess where the Dark Ones might be, judging off of the stories, but both were wrong. They had all sort of led to where they were now, though, like a pathway. Eli knew, when he was no longer able to teleport, that it had to be it; enchanting such a weird and wide forest to resist someone else's magic was a kind of spell that only some enderpeople could conjure, and Eli, who had studied those kind of spells for two years, wasn't sure if he was among them.

That's when they spotted it. It was just a tiny cave, but it was the most unsuspicious part of the whole landscape, which, oddly enough, immediately made it suspicious.

Eli didn't realize he had jumped off of Elijah's back about ten seconds too early, and fell a little too hard to the ground. "Eli!" Elijah followed. "You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, fine." Eli was too afraid to actually check. "Let's go."

Eli sprinted ahead. Elijah followed, trying not to be worried. He was the type that didn't like going without a plan -especially with what he had heard about the Dark Ones- and Eli was the kind to improvise. Elijah sort of gave himself a last-minute plan idea that probably wouldn't even work, and though he almost didn't fit, Elijah followed Eli into the cave.

* * *

Elise never understood what happened to her after that. She was in a daze of pain, and everything else was blurry and unfocused. But she felt something spike at her feet, felt and only kind of heard the scream that escaped her.

The soul that had come out of her was screaming as well. Then it was floating, free from Elise entirely. It took its chance to escape, giving the body of Elise an apologetic look. Elise couldn't blame it, or herself, or whatever.

Then Shadow grabbed the black knife and stabbed the soul in the shoulder. The thing screamed louder, a ringing, deafening sound that stirred Elise, but she couldn't move.

Whatever was in that knife, it kept the soul there, a panicked look in its bright purple eyes.

"Keep it there." Dagger muttered. "I think we'd better hurry. Luna sent me a message, and she senses someone."

Shadow sighed. "People always trying to ruin my fun. My quick work is always messy."

"Messy is better than nothing at all. Now come on, I believe we have another couple spells to use."

* * *

The room was mostly quiet. It didn't reassure Eli, who plunged ahead. The smell sickened him and the thought of the cause of the smell sickened him and the fact that his daughter had been dragged through it all sickened him most of all. Eli was trying not to throw up, trying to calm his racing heart, when he saw them.

They were like any other two enderpeople, except their eyes were different. One of them had bright purple eyes, the other, bright blue. Both wore matching hoods. The one with blue eyes was grinning.

"I told you so, Lavender. There's two of them, not three."

"What you didn't mention, Luna, is that one of them is a dragon!" Lavender groaned. "I hate killing dragons. They're so useful."

"Thanks," Elijah hissed, and blew an inferno at her face.

"Mother of Minecraft, that's a lot of magic fire!" At the last second, a shield appeared around the two, but the force of it slammed both of them back.

Eli grabbed Luna by the throat and slammed her against the wall. "Where's Elise?"

It wasn't Luna, who was gasping for air, who replied, but Lavender.

"The girl?" Lavender laughed, nose bleeding as she stood up. "You're a little late. Just follow the sound of the screams."

That's when Eli heard them. High-pitched, unearthly, pained screams that burned his ears and made his gut twist. "Shit!"

He ran in the direction of it. Elijah blew a ball of smoke at Lavender for good measure and then followed.

* * *

Soul stealing was complicated, as Dagger had learned. For one thing, kidnapping and torturing enderpeople to death was generally frowned upon. Not to mention that the victims weren't exactly willing.

Still, they stole souls. And that part alone was hard. A soul is the literal core of a being, a home inside a home. It usually doesn't want to come out, usually you have to coax it. Dagger used to be the one to do so, and Shadow would deal with the rest. Dagger found that Shadow enjoyed it a little too much, and gave Shadow the partly harder, more boring task.

The thing about a soul is that, once even persuaded outside by the proper spell, they still remained properly tied to their hosts. As a soul's motto goes, 'wherever you walk, I walk'. So, their feet are permanently tied together. Well, not so permanently; those ties are easily removed. It's just not so fun for the host, or the soul, for that matter. The little endergirl didn't seem fond of it, which seemed to please Shadow.

The next step to soul stealing was a little bit less pleasant. The spell, of course, required that the soul to be alive, and for it to be freshly from an enderperson's body, but after that, it didn't matter what happened to the unfortunate, now literally soulless victim. What mattered was that the soul would be crushed until it was an essence of power. It would kill the soul, and without a trace of a soul of any kind, it would kill the victim. Shadow seemed to take a lot of joy in that fact.

Shadow grabbed the knife, dragging the soul along with it. "What about the girl?"

"She's not our problem. She's not going anywhere, and we have her life source, regardless. Let's go." Dagger replied.

Elise was alone with a bloody hammer, a puddle of purple and red surrounding her, and an old, dusty spell book. The last thing she saw before the darkness grabbed her was the sight of her soul giving its body one last, long, mournful look, and then being yanked away. Elise still had her own bright eyes in her vision when the dark greeted her.

* * *

Eli had told himself he was prepared for anything. He had told himself he could take down anyone or anything -including the Dark Ones- if it meant getting his daughter back. And what did he have to worry about? He had a best friend dragon on his side. He was sure he could take anything they threw at him.

He was very, very wrong.

The sight in the next room, accompanied with the smell, and a lot of his own panic, was enough to make fear slam from his head, to his throat, to his heart, to his core.

"Oh, Gods..."

He didn't remember teleporting, he didn't remember running, he didn't remember his feet touching the ground, but in a split second he was next to her. He was too afraid to touch her, but he listened. After one moment, and then two, he heard a heart beat. A moment of hesitant relief flooded through him.

Elijah came in right about then. "Mother of Minecraft and all her sons..."

Eli looked up with Elise in his arms. They exchanged glance for a moment, Eli's full of desperation and Elijah's full of anger.

"What did they do to her?" Elijah shook his head.

Eli closed his eyes and felt the tears tumbling down. "Look at her feet."

Elijah looked and was even more pissed. Her feet were bloody and slightly glowing; they had cut the ties off her soul. He knew that's what the Dark Ones did, but he refused to believe it. Someone had been stupid enough to mess with his best friend and his family. "I'm gonna kill them."

"No objection here." Eli muttered. "I should probably go with you, but..." The enderman felt like he couldn't leave his unconscious princess alone. He couldn't look away from her.

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of 'em, and I'll be quick. You can follow me if you can, but if you can't, get her out of here and quick." Elijah didn't give Eli time to answer as he disappeared deeper into the cave.

Almost immediately, a boom and a white flash of light came from the same direction. Eli listened, but he couldn't hear Elijah. As he listened harder, he realized just how loud the silence was. He also couldn't hear something else. He leaned closer towards his daughter to be sure, but...

Elise's heart had stopped.


	4. A Step Into The Dark Plus Hero's B-Day

**WARNING: LONG CHAPTER. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. IHEARTHORSES6000 IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY MIND BLOWNNESS AS A RESULT OF THIS OR ANY CHAPTER. **

** CONTEST: **

**Alright, so, my goal as a writer is to not just inspire people to write as well, because the world needs more writers. SO, I challenge every single one of you guys to write a poem (or a story, or a scene, or WHATEVER, it doesn't matter, just write!) beginning and/or ending with one (or all, for all I care) of the following options, and basically connect it to minecraft in some kind of writing piece: **

**1)Her eyes were the size of magnificence and color of royalty.**

**2) His skin was the tint of moonlight and the thickness of strength. **

**3) His breath was the dealer of fire and the whisper of dark magic.**

**4) Her magic was the power of the moon and strength of its dark side. **

**Okay, so, you guys can either PM me whatever you write or put it in a review by 3/15. On 3/16, I will pick the one that moves me the most and put it in the beginning of the next chapter. Meanwhile, I will be writing the next chapter. ALSO, that person MAY ((maybe, no promises here...)) pick an OC for me... ;)**

**REGARDING OCS: **

**If they're not Mary Sue and all that, I MIGHT do 'em, just not super heavily. I'll kinda like request when I need 'em, and then you guys can spam me with all you've got. For the moment, avoid da spam, please, because like, one time, a reviewer like threw one IN MY FACE, like, it stings...I got a paper cut IN MY EYE... **

**Anyway. This chapter will be the final one that has mainly and mostly Enderpeople. I mean, they'll still be in the story, but after this one the chapters will have a different focus. At the end, everybody will re-meet everybody else, probably including OCs. #party #torture #etc**

**ALSO: This is the chapter where Enderman's past and Herobrine's past intertwine. It's weird. This is minecraft. This is me. Plus, there's Herobrine. It's gonna be weird. Get used to it.**

**ONE MORE NOTE:**

**Not sure if I mentioned this or not, but just to confuse you or to unconfuse you, this story takes place BEFORE the Interviews (which is why I called this a sequel/prequel, because it could be either). So, I don't even know if that fits or not, but it needs to happen at some point, and that seems to work, so, um, uh. Maybe I'll do a chapter analysis at the beginning of each chapter. Like, for this one I would do:**

**Ch. 3: Whatever I name this chapter.**

**Time: Before Interviews**

**Summary: Herobrine is summoned, Dark Ones get freaked, and Elise has a heart attack (probably not in that order), et cetera, et cetera.**

* * *

So, the thing about Elijah; he usually came up with good plans. Yet, when he had about ten seconds to come up with a plan, he usually didn't come up with a good one. His ten-second ones usually were crazy and didn't go as planned.

Still, he never thought he'd be summoning a vampire.

It was the last thing he could think of. After all, they had heard the stories about the Dark Ones, how they could take down armies when their powers were combined, so what chance did a regular enderdragon and enderman have? A regular enderdragon, enderman, and vampire seemed to have a higher chance.

The thing about summoning Herobrine; it isn't easy.

No, Elijah wasn't stupid enough to directly summon him with the whole golden blocks thing. That would let Herobrine roam free. Elijah wasn't that stupid. Elijah used an older kind of magic, a kind of magic Herobrine wasn't very fond of; binding spells.

If you do it right, you can summon whoever or whatever you want, and it will have to do whatever you want for as long as you want, as long as you have the strength to keep the spell up. If you do it wrong, basically, you die a really painful death, or, worse, your soul becomes one of the many that can be summoned.

Needless to say, Elijah wasn't fond of the spell.

Bind Magic felt like someone put spikes into your wrist, and told you to make the blood that fell into one, neat pile. It took concentration, which Elijah wasn't sure he had. But he did it. He spoke the forbidden words (ligare magicae, magicae obligant, ut non dicam tibi. Verba mea exaudi, exaudi orationem meam. Oculatus unus albus vocat, vocat lamia libidinis vocat unum interdicta. Liga magicae, magicae obligant, ad vos clamito, blah blah blah, you get it) and held his breath as he waited. After a long, sinking moment, nothing happened.

"Shit." Elijah muttered out loud.

Just as he said it, a white light blinded him -then he realized it wasn't one white light, but two. Two white, blinding eyes.

A familiar figure fell to the ground, since he had technically been summoned in midair. Herobrine grunted as he stood up, and then realized he could barely move. He looked at his wrists, which both had an identical white brand of white runes scattered across them. "You've got to be kidding me. Bind magic?" He looked up and scowled. "From an enderdragon? Seriously? Ughh."

"Oh, shut up." Elijah said, not in the mood for attitude; Elijah had plenty of it by himself. "The faster you do what I want, the faster you can go and do whatever. I just want one favor, and I have a bad feeling you're going to like it."

Herobrine raised a brow. "I'm listening."

"I want you to kill somebody. Actually, multiple somebodies."

Herobrine's eyes lit up -and they technically already were, but you know what I mean- and he resisted a grin. "Why didn't you just say so? Where and who are they, exactly?"

"Uhm, they're known as the Dark Ones, and they kind of stole my best friend's daughter, and killing them would make them unable to keep freaking every other enderperson out, so it'd be great if you could help out. I feel kinda outnumbered."

Herobrine rolled his eyes. "That's great, buddy. I don't need your life story. You could have shortened that by a lot. It's called 'Bind Magic' for a reason, so stop making it sound like I've got a choice." Herobrine tried to move, and only succeeded in feeling stiffer. "Gods of Minecraft, I hate Bind Magic."

"The sooner you help me the sooner I can get rid of you. Believe me, I'm not fine with it either. And I don't know about you, but I'd like to get this over with."

The vampire sighed and cracked his knuckles. "Agreed."

Eli felt like he should go help his best friend -after all, if he wanted to save Elise, he'd have to stop the ones that had threatened her in the first place, first- and was about to, but then the fight came directly to him.

The Dark Ones were on the run, and seemed to have forgotten that Eli was there, or simply didn't know. Luna and Lavender both came in, groggy and dazed, from one side, and a grinning Shadow and soul-dragging-by-a-dagger Dagger came in from the other. Elijah and Herobrine were quick to follow.

For a second, everyone just exchanged glances. Mostly, Dagger, Shadow, Eli, and Elise -a very sick Elise, but her eyes were open, wide open- were all just staring in shock at Herobrine. The vampire didn't seem to care too much.

"Okay, yes, I get it, I'm crazy to have summoned a vampire, can we get this show on the road now, please?!" Elijah broke the silence.

"I would honestly like to." Herobrine replied. "But you kinda have to give a command that sounds less like a request, otherwise it doesn't work as well. Considering you're the freaking summoner, I hope you know that."

"Maybe I wasn't talking to you, Herobrine." Elijah rolled his eyes.

"Elijah?...You...summoned...a vampire. One of the most dangerous vampires in the world." Eli gaped for a long time.

"Actually," Dagger said, though he still looked surprised, "he's the most dangerous vampire in the world."

"Thank you, somebody gets it right." Herobrine replied. "And unfortunately for me, it's one of the guys I get to kill. Oh well."

Dagger gave the wide-mouthed Lavender and Luna a silent command, and immediately they edged towards Eli and Elise. Eli made a hissing noise he had never released before.

"Okay, um, um," Elijah didn't know what to do. "Herobrine, take out the red grinning one and the guy next to him. If you get the chance, see the soul next to them? Take the dagger out of its shoulder as soon as possible."

"M'kay." Herobrine replied lunged towards them. Elijah turned his focus towards Lavender and Luna.

It took about three seconds before it was, overall, chaos.

Herobrine had been expecting two endermen. What he got was one spellcaster and the other, really,really good with knives (seriously, the red guy was so fast, he must have been related to vampires).

Lavender and Luna knew full well knew that if they captured Elise, Eli would freak, which would make Elijah freak, which would cause Elijah to pull back from attacking Dagger or Shadow. The biggest flaw in that plan was that Elise wasn't unguarded.

Eli gently laid her daughter -who was still having trouble breathing- down, and then growled at the quickly incoming Lavender and Luna. Outnumbered or not, the two soon discovered that Eli knew how to fight. Plus, Elijah, as usual, had his back.

Shadow, meanwhile, was losing his fight, having never fought a vampire before. Not to mention Dagger's spells had little effect, due to the fact that they took so long to say, and Herobrine, being a vampire and summoned in such a way, was generally hard to curse. Herobrine was enjoying himself, about to beat Shadow into the ground.

Dagger knew then, that it was time to change tactics. "Luna, Lavender, the dragon!" He rushed towards them, leaving Shadow and Herobrine a little occupied.

Neither Herobrine nor Elijah liked the sound of Shadow's plan -okay, so Herobrine liked the sound of it, a little bit, more than a little bit. If Elijah was weakened enough, and Herobrine was free to do as he pleased, to kill whoever he pleased...

"Shit!" Eli muttered, rushing in to Elijah's defense. "This is ridiculous. I'm trying to defend my daughter, who was kidnapped by the Dark Ones, and defend my best friend, who happened to decide to use Bind Magic."

"Hey, it was the only shot I had. We may be awesome, but we were seriously outnumbered." Elijah said defensively.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Eli looked at him for a second. "I can't believe you had the guts to do it, honestly."

"My best friend is currently doubting my guts. That's always good." Elijah sighed, and then slapped the oncoming attack from Luna away. "Just, uh, don't let me die, kay? Cuz then we'll have a loose vampire, plus the Dark Ones..."

"You make me sound hopelessly unloyal!" Herobrine shouted over to them, as he slapped Shadow across the face for the third time.

"That's because you are hopelessly unloyal!" Elijah called back, slamming Lavender into the ground, while Eli wrestled Luna.

"Fair enough!" Herobrine sighed and ducked Shadow's knife.

That's when Dagger made his way to Elijah and Eli. "Go help Shadow," He growled to Luna and Lavender, who both nodded and took off. Lavender had more trouble getting up, but she made her way over there.

Dagger found that Eli and Elijah were much more susceptible to his spells than Herobrine was. Eli ended up being glued to the wall in a mixture of magma and ice, a painful goo that made his skin smoke and his breath visible. And then it was just Dagger and Elijah.

The dragon swung his tail at the spellcasting torturer. Dagger dodged, only to run into a line of fire. A shield appeared around him and disappeared when the flames were gone. The entire time, Dagger was chanting, murmuring to himself. The spell, whatever it was, was a long, slow, powerful one. All Elijah could think of doing was to try and stop his concentration.

The biggest thing that happened next, though, was that while Herobrine was taking his time against the three enderpeople, he made his way over to Elise's soul, and then gripped the black dagger. Its dark glow disappeared, as the soul zipped in a white blur towards Elise. She took it in with a gasp of air. Herobrine stared with confusion at the knife. "The hell...where did you guys even get this? This dark magic shit was destroyed ages ago."

"So? What's so big about it?" Eli groaned, struggling against the goo, finally starting to free himself. The magma was, apparently, stronger than the ice; it burned through his skin, through his heart.

"What's so big about it is that's its Blood Magic. The reason why it held the kid's soul still was because it had her blood on it. Souls only stay in anybody's body because their blood matches, and its kinda instinct not to move. They really can't, actually, a little bit like Bind Magic. This knife basically imitates it." Herobrine lifted the knife and stabbed the charging Lavender, who cried out and crumbled to the ground. Luna made a high-pitched choking sound as she rushed to Lavender. "Lavender?!"

THe vampire grinned. "Also, if the blood is closely enough related, as in, say...sisters..."

Herobrine jumped towards the off-guard Luna, and stabbed her leg. Luna froze, face stuck wide in shock. The vampire laughed, and it was little hard not to; Luna's eyes still moved, but the rest of her was like stuck in slow motion, and her face, with brows high and pupils small and mouth open, was frozen entirely.

Lavender howled with annoyance, and then both she and Shadow attacked the vampire at the same moment. Herobrine laughed and then his whole figure shuddered, flickered, and then he disappeared. Shadow's and Lavender's magic hit each other in the opposite shoulder. They both fell down painfully. The vampire laughed at them, kicking them both back to the ground when they tried to get up.

Elijah turned to Eli, about to say something, when Dagger, who Elijah seemed to have thought was stunned by his earlier attack, hit Elijah in the shoulder, trying to hide in the dragon's blind spot. It kind of backfired on him; Elijah didn't like it very much when someone jumped on his back. He reared upwards with a roar, and Dagger went flying.

Dagger smashed into the ground, landing on one fist and one knee. He stood up, shaking the smarting pain of his hand.

Four things happened at the same time; Lavender and Shadow were finally able to counterattack against Herobrine, knocking him off his feet, Eli managed to free himself, rubbing goo off his arm, Elise forced herself to stand up, even if she had to lean up against a wall, and last but not least, Dagger finally managed to wound Elijah. And Elijah's wound was not a good one; it was a magical one, the kind that could weaken the spirit and break into energy.

It wouldn't have been such a big deal, because Elijah then had Eli to cover him, but it was a big deal because if Elijah became weak, Bind Magic would break, and a vampire would be free to do as he pleased.

It didn't take long. It really hardly took seconds, and then the spell was broken. Elijah couldn't even get up, his muscles aching, head pounding, body throbbing. He could barely keep himself conscious, but he managed to see the white runes slowly disappear off of Herobrine's wrists before his vision darkened.

The vampire broke into a grin. He was free to do whatever he wanted, including kill anyone in the room. His powers weren't exactly limited anymore.

The first thing he did was lift up a hand, and then everyone in the room was frozen, unable to move, their bodies not responding to commands. No one could go anywhere, no one, but Elise, who Herobrine had left untouched.

Herobrine watched them all for a long moment, and to Eli's intense rage, the vampire strutted towards Elise. She took one step backwards, but made no other move, even though Herobrine's spell hadn't touched her.

She stared up at him defiantly.

"Hi, little one. These guys just giving you a hard time?"

"Hi." She made it sound like a threat. "Yes, they are."

"And you're just going to let them?"

"I can't do a lot about it. I'm little. And the red guy has a really strong voice. But I will do what I can. Why do you care?"

"Hm, well, see, I'm trying to decide if I do care. The side I'll pick is the one I think will be more interesting for me, more fun, you know. And right now, the 'red guy' looks pretty interesting."

Elise frowned. "Interesting, as in he's cool, or interesting, as in you wanna hit him?"

Herobrine grinned. "Kind of both. But you have a similar effect, so I'm conflicted."

"I don't care if you side with them," Elise hissed at him, "but if you touch my daddy or his friend, I will make you choke yourself."

Herobrine raised a brow. "Huh. And how do you plan to accomplish that?"

"With a spatula."

The vampire broke out in a short laugh. "Warning acknowledged."

Eli's arm jerked once, and then froze back into place. Herobrine frowned. "Sheesh. Your daddy doesn't like staying still."

"He's a little hyperactive." Elise shrugged.

"And a little too strong for his age, if you ask me. Don't you endermen ever get like, weaker when you're older?"

Elise frowned. "My daddy told me that when we get older and wiser Queen Enderia gives us strength so we live longer, and so that when we do die, we're not scared."

"Huh. Does that count if you die when you're little, and in a place like this?" Herobrine gestured around.

Elise wrinkled her nose. "I...I don't know. I was scared earlier..." She glared at Dagger, and then stared defiantly up at Herobrine. "But I'm not scared of you."

The vampire shrugged. "I'm not sure if you should be, it'd be hard to find a way to do more damage to you at the moment." He looked her over, from the bleeding arm to the internally bleeding legs, and then -to Eli's immense rage- reached out and lifted up her chin, revealing a bruise on her neck. "Sheesh. What did you, Dagger, whack her with a hammer?"

As he spoke, Dagger felt his mouth loosen, like the vampire was at least letting him talk. The leader of the Dark Ones pursed his lips for a second before replying, "Good guess."

Herobrine turned and looked at him in surprise. "Seriously? Hammers? Pfft, talk about old school. I knew you guys used old magic, but this is ridiculous. If you're gonna torment somebody's kid, do it right. And, speaking of which, kids? Really? That's low."

"You're one to talk." Dagger rolled his eyes.

"Am I? I've done a lot of things, Dagger, but hurting kids is a new low. Not to mention they're not very fun when they're too little."

"Oh, please, quit acting like you can't smell her blood. You know what's in it. You know what the wounds she has are worse than they look. Why let her suffer, Mr. 'Hero', Mr. Little Self Control?"

Herobrine rolled his eyes in a 'I can't believe this guy' look. "You act like you know me. I know how to control myself just fine, thank you very much, though I can't say the same for any of you four. I mean, god, you guys are power hungry."

"You usually are too." Shadow blurted. "If what I've heard about you is true. I mean, come on, the idea of being an almost god doesn't even tempt you?"

Herobrine rolled his eyes. "Amateurs. No, it doesn't tempt me, because I'm already half god, all the time, without any effort whatsoever. It makes your little attempts at half immortality look pathetic, because it is."

"'Cuse me," Elise broke in, "but, um, do you think you could stop chatting about power and release my family?"

Herobrine looked at Elijah and Eli, and bit his lip. "Huh. Don't know. I mean, I certainly could, but I don't really want to."

Elise sighed. Why did grown-ups have to be so difficult? "Fine. What will it take?"

Herobrine grinned. "Well, with that attitude, not much. Let's see...you're an enderwoman, am I correct, little miss purple eyes? You can teleport, right?"

"Urm...more or less..." Elise replied.

"Oh, right, you guys aren't born with it, you actually have to learn how to, don't you? Well, then, I say there's no better time than a time like now. So, tell ya what. You teleport a single time, and I'll let 'em go."

"B-But there's an enchantment..." Elise swallowed thickly. "How can I teleport...?"

"Oh, you're little. Your tiny teleportation hardly counts. All enchantments have their holes, and this enchantment has a problem detecting smaller amounts of energy. Kind of like how some cars weigh a shotgun passenger, and if they're light enough, the airbag will stay off."

"The who and the what and the where?" Elise frowned.

"Ah, nevermind. Anyway, point is, the enchantment doesn't effect you." Herobrine replied. "So go on and try."

Elise shivered as his cool breath ran down her neck. She stared at him for another moment, watching the dark eyes gleam back at her. She had to teleport, she had to.

"Teleporting is like jumping through time." Her father had told her. "You're not jumping by very far, only a couple seconds. In older times, Endermen could teleport up to years into the past or future. But that was too dangerous for anyone but Enderia to handle. So now we take little hops into the future. You have to take a tiny bite of it, and savor the flavor of it for a couple seconds. It might help, Elise, if you just stop for a second and wonder what the future might taste like."

Elise felt confused and cornered, not to mention light-headed, like her soul wasn't quite in place. It made her feel off balance, like the world around her was simply happening, and she was hardly a part of it. Maybe that was the point. Maybe that was why she was able to slip through the enchantment, if what Herobrine said was true, which didn't seem likely, because...well, he's Herobrine.

But she tried. She closed her eyes and honestly tried. She imagined a hole; a tiny little crack that she could easily hop into, and it would take her wherever she wanted.

Her stomach dropped to her feet, like resisting the urge to go anywhere; gravity seemed to pound onto her, like she had chains on her feet and bound her to the world. This was not the feeling she was hoping for; she was aiming more for weightlessness. Her head felt weightless and painful, like someone had decided to pound quietly on her head with a hammer whenever she wasn't looking. She started shuddering and flickering, like she did whenever she tried to teleport. But this time, it was different. Her whole body usually began to tingle, like all the nerves in her body had fallen asleep, but this time, it was painful. Her body was heavy and felt like slow lava was oozing through her veins.

She gasped and opened her eyes, the pain almost reflecting in them. "I...I can't. It's...I can't."

Herobrine's smile spread to his eyes. "So, you need a little motivation, then?"

Judging by his tone, 'motivation' wasn't exactly the right word to use. She backed up multiple steps, as Herobrine came closer with fangs bared.

Then, all at once, he was behind her, and close enough to whisper in her ear, "I propose a new deal. Either you teach yourself how to teleport, here and now, or I kill everyone in this room, and I'll let you watch. First the Dark ones. Then the dragon. Then your father." She tried to focus on teleporting, but was having trouble as Herobrine lightly brushed her shoulder and hissed, "Then you."

Elise felt a kind of cold swell in the pit of her stomach. Her body was still shuddering and flickering, but she wasn't trying to teleport, and it was becoming uncontrollable. If she couldn't teleport -how? How was she supposed to do it with no help?- her father's death and his friend would be her fault. And then the vampire would come after her...

Elise closed her eyes, feeling the fiery pain return. She tried to ignore it, and tried to focus only on the place she wanted to go, but that was the problem; she couldn't focus. Her mind was in a frenzy and nothing made sense. Then the pain became too much, burning her existence away, and she opened her eyes.

Herobrine snorted impatiently. "Fine, then, I'll get right to it." He strutted over to the Dark Ones. "Who do you hate more, Luna or Lavender?"

Elise tried to say something like 'stop' or 'no', but she just made a choking noise as her sandpaper tongue rubbed against her desert-dry throat.

"Well, that's hardly an answer. Personally, Luna is annoying, but Lavender even more so. So I'll let Lavender watch while I kill her sister."

Lavender's magically frozen body made a rebellious jerk.

It happened so quickly Elise felt like she was just watching from someone else's mind, someone who wasn't a part of any of the chaos, someone who might have been indifferent, if what they witnessed wasn't so immensely disturbing.

It started with the blurring; Herobrine himself became one, a green and blue and brown blur, identified only by his two white eyes that flashed and gleamed. The blur charged towards the Dark Ones. His mouth found Luna's neck. She screamed as her blood ran cold -almost literally. Lavender screamed with her, panicked and confused, and fought so much she was almost free from Herobrine's spell; and he was a little busy, anyways.

There was a loud, sickening crack that echoed in Elise's ears. Luna's head twisted at an unusual angle, and her screaming ceased as she fell to the ground. Lavender continued screaming and sobbing for her sister. There was a low hiss that told her to shut up. She didn't listen. Her screaming only increased as Herobrine's blur fell upon her, and then she suffered the same fate her sister had.

At the same time, Eli and Elijah had almost broken free, eyes wide, but Herobrine was a little more focused when he wasn't sucking the blood outta somebody, so he stopped them short.

Elise didn't realize she was shouting, as well, until she was the only one making any noise. The sound quickly died as a lump formed in her throat. "I can't..." Elise stuttered. "You...You just..."

Herobrine spun around, grinning a mouthful of red. "I just what?"

"Y-You just killed them..." Elise took a shaky breath as tears fell from her eyes. Her father's eyes warned her, but she went on, almost so afraid she was angry. "You didn't even think about it...you just killed them."

"You act honestly surprised." Herobrine rolled his eyes, wiping blood off his lips. "So, figured out how to teleport yet?"

"I-I..."

"No? That's a shame. I kinda liked dragons." Herobrine sighed and lunged towards Eliljah.

Elise made a choking sound before sprinting towards them, but not before Herobrine got there. The Enderdragon was fighting the spell, as was Eli, when Elise came to a halting stop as Herobrine looked back at her again.

She was determined to keep him away from her family, even if that meant doing something stupid. "Don't touch them!"

Herobrine's smile was gone. She blinked, and then he was next to her, slightly crouching and whispered in her ear, "I'll do what I want, little miss attitude. And there's nothing you can do to stop me, so stop acting like you can. You can't stop me, and you can't control a single thing I do. So when I tell you to sit back and watch, you do just that. Got it?"

She held her breath. She told herself not to say it. Don't say it. Don't say it...

"No."

Herobrine stared at her, surprised. "Oh, really?"

"No. I don't care what you do to me. Leave my family alone. You can't hurt everyone just because you feel like it. Don't hurt my family."

"Oh, fine, I'm just more interested in that first part. You don't care...at all...what I do to you?" Herobrine laughed at the idea.

Elise swallowed. "No. As long as you leave them alone."

"Oh, so you're making deals of your own, now are you?" Herobrine rolled his eyes. "Fine. Have you taught yourself to teleport, yet?"

Elise bit her lip. "Uh..."

"My goodness, Elise, your father would be so disappointed in you." Herobrine looked back at the Enderman. "Actually, judging by the fact that he's currently vibrating, even under a frozen spell, I would assume that he's a little pissed."

It seemed to take effort, but after a couple moments of difficulty, Eli was able to give Herobrine a rather rude finger.

Herobrine gasped in mock surprise. "Mother of Minecraft, there are children in this room, Eli!" He covered Elise's eyes and asked her, "Is he always like this?"

"Are you always like this?" Elise shot back.

"Obviously." Herobrine rolled his eyes. "Now, where was I? Oh, yeah. Try again, Elise, and you've only got a couple seconds to figure out how to teleport, so, heh, good luck."

Elise stood rigid, trying to stop herself from swaying like she was dizzy. She closed her eyes, thinking about what her father had told her about teleporting. 'Teleportation' was really a little like time travelling, if you think about it; it's just someone walking to a new position, without the movement involved. She just had to move, without moving, with a vampire right by her ear and no help whatsoever. Totally easy.

The feeling in her stomach had barely started feeling like it was weighing her down when Herobrine called out, "Time's up. Fast fact: did you know that any single, individual enderperson, regardless of age or size, contains more radioactive magical capabilities than a hundred Nether portals? And what's cool is all that magic is in their blood. There's a reason the most powerful sorcerers in the world are endermen. A single drop, and all I'd need is some obsidian -which, of course, as a true traveller, I always have- to open a Nether portal."

Elise frowned, keeping her eyes closed, trying to focus, but failing, due to the heart beat that she was so sure belonged to the vampire next to her, a slow, steady, undistrubed beating. "Why would you want to go to the Nether?"

"I have my reasons. I used to be king of the place, you know, a couple centuries ago."

Elise leaned a little away from him, eyes still closed. "And just how old are you?"

"Hey now, don't you know it's extremely rude to ask an immortal -even a half immortal- what their age is? It'll give a headache, doing all that math. Umm...er...give me a second...bout a century ago I was six thousand? No, wait, that can't be right, because in June...was it seven thousand? No, wait-...Oh, whatever. I don't remember."

"I'm good at mental math." Elise offered, mostly just stalling. "When's your birthday?"

"Oh, today." Herobrine shrugged. "Let's see, today, I got stuck with bind magic and told to attack the Dark Ones, eventually got rid of the annoying ponytail twins, successfully put a spell on an enderdragon, and sucked the blood out of a little endergirl. Good day."

Elise paled and backed away. "I...I don't remember that last part."

"Oh, I think I've gotten a little ahead of myself, whoops." Herobrine replied, coming closer. "Hm, you know, your little cheerleaders over there are getting both annoying and annoyed. I think we should go somewhere else, huh?"

"Wait- what? Where-"

He grabbed her by the shoulder with a grip that made her wince. Then the world blurred, dark colors and shadows swirling, her stomach dropped to her feet, while her heart slammed into her throat, which was a weird, unsettling feeling to feel at the same time. When the world cleared, she was in a separate part of the cave, piles of massive boulders blocked any way out.

"Who-how-what?" Elise gaped. "Did-did you just teleport?"

Herobrine snorted. "I wish. No, I'm just real fast."

"Elise!" Came her father's voice from the other side of the rocks, the sound resounding through the cave. Multiple other noises of smashing and cracking followed, but

"Dad!" Elise tried to run in that direction, but Herobrine still held onto her with an impossibly powerful grip. She struggled against him with little success, besides she did manage to piss off a vampire, which wasn't hard.

"Elise!"

"Oh, give it up," It was Shadow's voice, but from farther away, like he was in the corner of the room. Elise could easily picture him leaning against the wall. "Nothing's gettin' through that, and we're all dead, anyways. Especially that girl."

There was a low growl in response.

"Well," Herobrine said, "They're all real positive. Anyway, I think I was saying something. Oh! Right." He smiled at her. "Can you teleport yet?"

Her throat was dry, but Elise managed a thick swallow anyways. "Um." She tried to take a step back and lied, "Y-Yes..."

"Oh, really? Great. Show me."

"Um."

To be fair, Elise tried.

Of course she had tried to teleport many other times that day, and every time something was weighing her down, an uncomfortable pressure that never left her. Her father had warned her that teleporting felt like getting squeezed into a space that no one could fit into. She thought it had been bad before, but at that moment, with her shoulders shaking and heart pounding, her soul slowly crept into a dark abyss, an emptiness and nothing that she couldn't escape from. The area squeezed every part of her, pushing her in on herself, as if she wanted to crumble into the ground and stay there.

She just wanted to go home. She couldn't teleport and all she wanted to do was go home.

Through the darkness that covered her ears and eyes, she heard and saw the owner of the bright white eyes say, after taking a great inhale, "Ah. Did you know that your blood is actually infected right now, Elise? Poisoned, if you want to call it that. After all, the magic that Shadow and Dagger used on you? That magic is dead. It died a long time ago, and they used undead magic on you. It should have killed you, it should have killed practically anybody, but the thing is, Enderpeople are magical. Dead magic mixed with your very live magic, and mixture is a terrible black blood, beating through your body. Will it kill you? Will it help you? Honestly, I have no idea. It's interesting. But the biggest problem is, as a vampire, I know a lot about blood. I can smell it, I can hear your heart beating, I can see what type it is. You're, what...A+, and with a lot of magic. That blood that's in you, that corrupted, half-dead blood, shouldn't be there. My first instinct is, naturally, to take every drop out of you. To finish off what's half-dead."

Elise didn't reply, didn't move. She was covered in the dark, but she felt an icy, faint touch go from her shoulder to her neck, resting on a particularly thick vein. Elise shuddered through the dark.

"So, Elise, can ya teleport yet?" He whispered in her ear.

A cold panic surged through her, but she couldn't move, compressed by a kind of nothing. She wanted to reply, to say something, anything, but the words wouldn't come. When she tried, all she managed was to swallow thickly under his hand.

"More silence from you, then, eh? Fine. I wonder what A+, magical, half-dead blood tastes like..."

He leaned closer, and then it happened so fast Elise was almost pulled out of the dark into a blindingly hot amount of pain.

Herobrine's teeth sunk into her neck.

She screamed, a blood-chilling, throaty yell that resounded in the empty cave. Someone called out for her from the other side of the room in a state of panic.

Her stomach dropped...and then kept dropping. Her whole body was falling, weighing down more and more, a cold rush running over her. She was in the dark.

And then she was in the lighter dark; she was in a corner of the room, shuddering and shaking, hugging herself. Black blood dripped from her neck.

"W-What...what did you do to me?" Elise whispered.

"Me?" Herobrine gave her a look of innocence. "Nothing. All I did was bite you. You're the one that teleported, little miss attitude."

Elise made a gasping sound, realizing he was right. She had moved without moving. She had stepped into the dark and then out of it. She was over seven feet from her original spot.

She should have been thrilled. But she was just terrified. And she realized that was exactly the point.

Her father hadn't told her to think of home to help her go there- it was to make her afraid that she would never be able to get back there. He didn't tell her outright, but he was telling her to be afraid.

That was the key; fear. Teleporting isn't a magic; it's an instinct. When endermen feel threatened and afraid, and they want to be anywhere but where they are, that's when they can teleport, at least for the beginners;

they take a step into the dark. Every creature becomes afraid at some point, to some extent, but the enderpeople had simply found a way to make it work for them. They turned their instincts into magic.

She had turned her fear into an escape.

Elise couldn't think about it anymore. Quietly and instinctively, she whispered, "Daddy..."

She was still afraid, so she used that. She stepped back into the dark that overwhelmed her so, and then she was right next to her father.

"Elise!"

In that instant Eli was hugging her, surprising her enough that the somewhat-restrained tears flew from her eyes, while Eli's eyes almost looked guilty. "I know, I know. I'm sorry, I should have told you. I'm sorry. It's okay, it's okay. I'm sorry."

So Elise just stayed in her father's arms until she fell asleep and her fear, at least for that moment, left her.

* * *

When she woke up, Elise was groggy, in her father's arms, and for a moment she just tried to smell the mint that was coming off him. Why did her father always smell like mint?

Then she heard Elijah and Herobrine in a somewhat tense conversation.

"Oh, no, you're all allowed to leave, of course. I'm just staying to finish off the Dark Ones. You know, so they don't go around tormenting kids. But yeah, you guys can go." Herobrine shrugged.

"It's good to have your permission, asshole." Elijah snarled. "By the Gods, I should shove you into the ground..."

"I'd really like to see you try." Herobrine chuckled. Slowly, hardly on purpose, he looked at Elise.

Elise felt the rage surge up in her. She hated those eyes. She hated and feared everything about him. She felt like something had clicked, something that wasn't in place finally was where it was supposed to be. It didn't take any effort to focus. She hardly had to close her eyes, and she stepped into the dark. Eli blinked, and his daughter was gone from his arms.

She stopped to step back into reality for only a split second, to gain speed, and aim properly, and then focused all of her hate directly at Herobrine's face, going back in and out of the dark...

And her fist collided with his face.

Herobrine mostly looked surprised, rubbing his forehead with a dull, "Ow. Sheesh, I think it's safe to say that the half-dead blood in you is actually gonna make ya stronger, little miss attitude." He looked at Eli. "I'd be careful, Eli, she's not gonna be any fun in the teen years."

"Go to hell." Eli snarled.

"Jeez, apparently I'm not wanted around here. Fine, fine, I'm going." Herobrine rolled his eyes, turning away.

Her eyes flashed angrily. "Hope you had a happy birthday, Herobrine. I hope I never see you again."

Herobrine laughed. "If it makes you feel any better, you probably won't." His figure blurred and then he was gone.

The first thing Elise did was hug her dad, and ask that they could just go home. Eli agreed, and this time, when they teleported, he led her through the dark.

* * *

Luna was surprised to wake up.

She should have been dead, after all. Whatever alternative she had received, she doubted it would be pleasant.

Her suspicions were proven correct when she looked up into two white eyes.

"You." She hissed.

"Yup, me." Herobrine grinned.

"Why didn't you kill me?"

"Oh, I just made it look like I did. I guess I'm good at that. More for the kid's eyes, ya know. This, however, is completely between you and me. And your sister, and the two guys, of course. The spellcaster and the other guy."

"My sister is alive?" Luna sounded too hopeful.

"Hm, well, in the scientific term, yes. Probably doesn't want to be, right about now, but yes." Herobrine shrugged. "It's just, I'm not done having fun with you guys. And, unlike most people I torture, you guys actually deserve it. I'm just here to insure the Dark Ones go out of business."

Luna bit down hard on her lip to resist screaming at him. Rage made her whole body shake, but there was hardly anything she could do about it.

"So, we've got a couple options. There's always silver tables," Herobrine grinned, "a personal favorite of mine. Then there's wooden boards, but like, talk about breakable, and splinters suck. Of course, there's the acid pool, if it's done by now. I'm not sure, I haven't checked. Anyway, there's that, or simply being chained to a wall. And that's just the position, of course. I've got about fifty different kinds of knives, but then again, endermen are all around annoying with their black blood, so I could head into a more electrifiying direction-"

He was cut off by a high-pitched scream that quickly died down to a gurgling. Herobrine smelled the air and broke into a grin. "Hm, seems the acid pool is ready."

Luna felt pale. "Who was that? Shadow or Dagger?"

"What, you don't think it could have been your sister? I mean, that was kind of a girly scream..."

"My sister doesn't scream." Luna snarled.

Herobrine chuckled. "We'll see about that. But you're right, though. That was Shadow. Dagger died a couple hours ago, I think. Your sister's alive, though barely. Because you challenged me so stupidly, I have to go make her scream now. So far, you're right, she mostly just grits her teeth, but I don't think she's ever had the experience of over ten thousand jolts of energy buzzing in her head before assisted with a hammer." Herobrine shrugged. "I've been using a hammer a lot today, it seems like. Not as fun as Thor makes it look. Kinda heavy after a while, but, eh, whatever."

"Why?" Luna cut him off, tears flooding her eyes. "Why are you doing this?"

"Oh, don't play innocent with me. You're just as bad as everybody else here. If the universe was truly and utterly and almost unfairly fair and cruel, you would get this kind of punishment anyways. Eli and Elijah are all soft-hearted. They'd just kill you to stop you from killing others, just a twist of the head, and be done with it. But the problem is that I'm like all of you. I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. You think it's all cruel and unfair, but this is what you've done to children, for crying out loud. And with children, everything is new, everything is inhanced. So that fear and rage you're feeling right now? That's what they felt, but so much worse." Herobrine stared at her for a long second before adding, "You torment for power. I torment for fun. At the end of it, it doesn't matter what your reason is. What matters is what you do, and how that effects others. And I know, I know, I'm one to talk. But people like you have always annoyed me. Besides, I'm having an awesome birthday so far, so why not extend it?" He shrugged.

The words continued, but by that time Herobrine was talking while he worked. Luna got a dose of the acid pool and a lot of a kind of rope burn she didn't know what possible. It wasn't a choice, at that point. She screamed. And she heard her sister screaming for the first time in the room next to her.

Luna knew when she was fading. Her mind scrambled for anything she could do, something, anything, while the world was getting darker, when she saw Herobrine's face and spat out, before the world shut her out completely, "Happy birthday, bastard."


	5. Skelly Butt

**{Recieving Minecraftia universe database...}**

**{Failure to retrieve data.}**

**{CRASH}**

**{REBOOTING...}**

**{Retrying...retrying...}**

**[Chapter analysis successfully loaded.]**

**[Author's note successfully loaded.]**

**Ch. 5: Skelly Butt**

**Time: Before Interviews**

**Summary: Skeleton and Spider meet and are immediately grossed out, yelling insults like 'Skelly butt' and 'multi-legs'. The animals are annoyed at this (besides the pigs, because no one gives less shits than pigs). Also, a vampire is involved in there somewhere.**

**Kay, so, I literally JUST posted a chapter, but this one's been done for a while and it's been waiting, and waiting, so, here ya go. It's a lot shorter, too.**

**YOU'RE WELCOME.**

**[...COMPUTER HAS CRASHED]**

**Dammit! HEROBRINE I KNOW THAT WAS YOU! **

**Herobrine: No idea what you're talking about... **

**[System rebooting...] **

* * *

Skeleton and Spider have a very interesting tale. For starters, the two best friends weren't always such. Actually, they started out as enemies.

When they first saw each other, it was by chance. The sun had fallen, the cold winds had sent in, and most players had gone inside, and found themselves a bed. But the night was a time of activity for monster mobs.

Spider never really understood it, how the whole monster/animal thing worked. He just knew not to attack the animals, and they wouldn't have any problems.

There had been a time when there had been problems. Er, a lot of them. The monsters didn't like the animals at all, and the animals didn't like them much either. But the Mooshrooms, apparently, were powerful and badass when it came to war. Monsters ended up signing a contract, saying that the monsters would be allowed to live if they were peaceful, and if they did their best to protect the animals.

So, Spider and Skeleton were both outside, one of their first times, otherwise they probably would have run into each other before; the night was long and the world was small. They took one glance at each other, and were almost instantly revolted.

Skeleton had never seen a thing with that many eyes. It was creepy. _Does __that guy really need that many against the thought of being blind? What the hell? And why does he need that many legs...ugh! It crawls?! _

Spider had seen a skeleton before, sure. _But not a live one. Not a walking-around-holding-a-bow-like-he-owns-the-world one. _Bones had always seemed gross to him._ Skin and flesh just rotted away...like the remains of a zombie that died a really long time ago to collect dust. I mean, ew..._

The first couple nights, both ignored each other, thoroughly grossed out. Then was when Steve came out.

Steve had decided that night that he felt like killing monsters, and besides, he didn't have a bed. He grabbed his iron chestplate and leather helmet (hey, don't judge him, he hadn't gone mining in a while, it was all he had) and picked up his iron sword, and rushed towards zombie after zombie, occasionally followed by a creeper or two. _Ugh, why so many zombies?_

Then he ran into Spider and Skeleton.

Spider's and Skeleton's tactics were very different. Spider preferred to jump down from above, and loved the way that the player's skin crawled when he blindly slashed upwards. Skeleton, on the other hand, would stay right where he was, unless he needed a clearer shot. But what happened was that Spider fell from the air, directly on top of Steve, but Steve rolled out of the way. Skeleton's arrow ended up lodged in Spider's back, and though Skeleton kept aiming at him, Steve was able to get away and find easier targets. Like zombies. _Wahoo for zombies. You turn around and...oh! Look! Another zombie. Ha, just kidding, that guy had a couple friends...who had a couple friends..._

Spider groaned in pain, half of his hearts gone. The arrow didn't seem to want to come loose, as if the fall hadn't been bad enough. Normally Spider crushed someone else in the process of his fall, not himself. "Thanks a ton, bone face, you let him get away."

Skeleton was unsure why he felt so offended, but felt defensive against the ugly eight-eyed thing. "_I_ let him get away? You didn't even move."

"Kind of hard to, with _your_ arrow in my back!"

"Oh, please, you're too slow to have gotten him anyway." Skeleton rolled his nonexistent eyeballs.

"Says the guy without even actual muscles. Is that why you never actually follow anybody?"

"It's called being smart, freak face. Not that you would know what that means."

"You don't even have a brain."

"And yet I'm still smarter than you. Explains a lot, doesn't it?"

Spider couldn't think of a good reply, which pretty much just proved Skeleton's even more. "Shut up!"

The conversation went from annoying shouts to annoying grumbles as both went their own way, even though Spider managed to get the arrow out and throw it at Skeleton before going back into his cave. The sun came up as Skeleton muttered about creepy freaks of nature.

With some friendships, it starts with a disaster. Skeleton and Spider's did. Take a guess at who the disaster was. No, seriously, guess. Think really hard. Something that basically screws everyone up. Really powerful. You would not want to be with him in a dark alley if you were stupid enough to piss him off.

Herobrine.

Skeleton and Spider were ideal targets. Neither of them even actually had blood, but, surprisingly, that wasn't what Herobrine was looking for that night. They were so busy arguing at each other, (repeatedly, night after night, it annoyed just about anyone nearby) that they didn't notice the vampire watching them. It was too easy to get them, it honestly bored the vampire.

"Ugh! You act like you're king of the world, you literally rotten pile of bones!"

"This literal pile of bones can still hurt, you know. So do these arrows."

"Yeah, I know, you asshole, I had one in the back, once upon a time."

"How about this. Shut up, or I'll hit you with a arrow so hard you won't even know-"

That's when Herobrine sprinted towards them. Both let out squeals and squeaks; they were looking into the eyes of Herobrine -like,_ the_ Herobrine, as in the blood-sucking, previously Nether-ruling, back-stabbing vampire- and had nowhere to go. All they felt after that was something painful slamming into them, grabbing them by the shoulders, digging into their skin -hands in a vice-like, claw-like grip, Spider realized with a gasp of pain- and the world morphed into blurs before it went dark.

Herobrine yawned, as the mobs he was dragging behind him were knocked out. It didn't surprise him; his speed was usually too much for others, and he was pretty sure he had accidently -yes, _completely_ accidently- slammed Skeleton against a rock along the way. Neither of them seemed like any fun, but Herobrine had work to do. _Oh well. Captives now, fun later._

_Lots of fun later._

* * *

If Spider didn't like skeletons, then he despised the cell Herobrine put him in. It smelled like...ew...did he even want to know? It was humid, greasy, and water echoed when it dripped to the floor. In the cell next to him, Skeleton would try hopelessly to shoot at the lock, which, oddly enough, was multiple feet above him. Actually, the whole door to the prison cell was above him, like the cell itself was a hole in the ground. If he had been able to climb, which Spider could do with ease, he would be able to get out. Spider, whose lock was too small to fit any of his arms in, would be able to get out if he had something small and thin, like a lockpick or something.

As it was, they were stuck. Besides, even if they did get out, they would get to face Herobrine, who, of course, they had had heard plenty about, probably more than they cared to know.

Herobrine was whistling to himself, and they heard a small splash. A strong, almost suffocating smell filled the cave that Herobrine had gone to.

"Ew, Father of Feathers, what _is_ that?" Spider wrinkled his nose.

Skeleton knew the scent well. "The base for a potion."

Herobrine stopped whistling long enough to say, "Right on, skelly butt. And I promise you, it's a really, really, really friendly potion."

"Oh, of course it is." Skeleton muttered. "Freaking maniac."

There was a laugh that echoed quietly in the cave. "I heard that. Don't push me, pale face. Your brother is Wither Skeleton, right? Potion making should be in your blood...or DNA. Or whatever you have. See if you can tell what kind of potion I'm making without even being able to see it."

Soon there was the sound of bubbling, and multiple things being splashed into cauldron.

Skeleton seemed shocked beyond words. "Is that..." He frowned at the smells. "Ghast tears...rotten flesh...blaze powder?"

"Yup. Seven cups of each. Bleh, it smells gross, though, huh?"

"What the hell are you making? And what's it got to do with me?" Spider said.

Skeleton closed his eyes. Seven cups of blaze powder, seven cups of rotten flesh, seven cups of ghast tears...he knew that recipe. It was an uncompleted one. Herobrine was missing a couple things. _But what?_

Skeleton stopped. "You're not making..." Skeleton leaned against the wall in a rather defeated manner. "Fuck."

Herobrine chuckled. "Um, no, I'm definitely not making that. Believe me, the ingredients would be very different. And it probably wouldn't smell like rotten flesh. Er, hopefully. Yeah, um, I'm gonna stop talking now."

"You're making Possession Splash Potion." Skeleton accused.

Herobrine chuckled and didn't reply.

"What's so bad about Possession Potion?" Spider spoke up.

"It's not really all _that_ bad," Herobrine said rather defensively. "It just lets me take control of the mind of anyone of my choice, for a temporary amount of time, of course, a day, at the most. Side effects usually include constant nightmares, but, well, that's what happens when someone else goes inside your head, so." Herobrine shrugged, and mixed up the potion. "I have a certain somebody to use it on."

"It's not about what it does," Skeleton sighed. "It's about what's in it. He's missing multiple ingredients."

"Very true. Can you tell me what I'm missing, eyeless bones?"

Skeleton frowned, trying to remember. "Erm...twenty seven glowstone..."

A splash. "Check."

"Twenty...twenty one redstone?"

Another splash. "Well, I want an extra kick, so I'm using twenty three."

Skeleton named many others, including a silverfish. "Hmm, yeah, nearly forgot that one." There was a painful squeak and a sizzle that made both captives shudder. "Check. I believe I'm only missing three more ingredients. Do you remember, arrow lover?"

Skeleton closed his eyes. He had been stalling, in a way, but there it was. Skeleton couldn't get himself to reply.

"You're awfully quiet, bow carrier." Herobrine chuckled.

"Skeleton?" Spider called, fear creeping into his voice.

Skeleton muttered, "He...he needs one spider eye, and three string."

Spider slowly backed up into a corner, but there was nowhere to go. He whispered, "What?"

Herobrine stood at the other side of Spider's cage, grinning. "Yes, I do need those." The vampire glanced over at the skeleton's cage. "But you forgot one, annoying archer."

Skeleton looked defeated, muttering, "You need one bone."

"I do." Herobrine replied. "Unfortunately for you, rotten ribs, the Possession Potion is rather specific, if you remember. If the ingredients have to be very...fresh; if they're older than around three minutes, then it's unlikely the potion will work at all."

"Yeah." Skeleton slumped against the wall. "I know."

"Hmm, well, since you seem to know everything, brainless, wanna tell me which one of you should go first?"

Skeleton shuddered and didn't reply. "I don't think it matters."

"Actually, it does. I did this once before, and the second one gets to go deaf from the other one screaming. I'm pretty sure I went a little deaf, even with earplugs."

"Well," Skeleton swallowed, "I don't have ears, so I don't care."

"Ha ha! That's true, that's true. Still, you've been awfully annoying, so I think I'm gonna shut you up first."

Herobrine started whistling again, fiddling with the key and lock to Skeleton's cage, (the old, rusty thing was really strong, but really annoying,) as Spider's heart began to pound. Skeleton's probably would have been pounding in his ears, but he didn't have a heart, or ears, so, as it was, he just really wished he was anywhere else.

The old cage finally opened, and Herobrine took his time coming in. Skeleton risked on shot, but Herobrine easily dodged, the arrow going behind him and slightly to the left, going inside Spider's cage and nearly hitting him, and then Skeleton was out of arrows.

"Fuck." Skeleton muttered, throwing the bow, too, but it didn't do much good. Skeleton glanced through the small barred window at Spider's cage. His aim hadn't been at Herobrine, not technically; it hit Spider's lock directly, unlocking the door.

Herobrine had his sword to Skeleton's technically nonexistent throat, when there was a small squeak, like a door someone was trying to open quietly.

He turned, to find Spider slowly opening his cell door. Spider saw him looking, yelped, and sprinted towards the front of the cave.

Herobrine smiled. "Well, you're a little too smart for a brainless guy, aren't you, skelly butt?" The vampire rushed towards the entrance, easily flipping out of Skeleton's cell, and chasing after Spider. The white-eyed monster couldn't deny it; he liked this better. A harder challenge.

Skeleton didn't waste a second of his time. He had to find a way to get out of his cell, whether the door was so high up or not. He came up with only one solution. He didn't like it, but he didn't have time to argue with himself.

He grabbed his bow and tried using it like a hook to get himself up. He was almost there, the bars, ledge, and open door within reach, when his bow got stuck in a loose rock. He lost his grip, and fell, but his bow didn't come with him.

There was a loud crunch, and Skeleton cried out. His leg was snapped at the knee, cracked and hardly staying together. (And note that this was before Skeleton was able to disassemble, reassemble, or mend himself.)

Skeleton couldn't even crawl away, now, and Herobrine was having trouble finding Spider, who could blend in with the dark.

But Spider was still running away from Herobrine, and his own fear was chasing him, making him louder and easier to find. Spider ended up turning around, and finding himself at the top ceiling of the cave, hanging and waiting for Herobrine to pass him.

The vampire could smell the musky scent of spider, but it was mixed with the others from the potion, leaving Herobrine confused as to where spider could be. "Mother of Minecraft, what a lucky thing." Herobrine glanced at Skeleton's cage. "Aw, did you fall and hurt yourself? I would give you a bandaid, but I think I ran out. I think a knife would work the same, huh? Let me find where I put mine." Herobrine disappeared to the back of the cave. Skeleton resisted the urge to mention that he didn't bleed, so he wouldn't need a bandaid anyways, but that would give the vampire more incentive to mentioning that he definitely needed a knife.

Spider's chance was now. He could get out and never look back. He headed towards the front of the cave.

Skeleton was trying to keep quiet, although he wasn't sure why, but mainly because he didn't want to give Herobrine the satisfaction of hearing him in pain. He gritted his teeth (see, _that_ he did have,) and gasped between them. He sighed and slumped again the wall. "Fuck," he said for the third time that day. "I love my luck, so much." He sighed. "Bye, Spider. I...agh. I won't see you later, I guess." It was the first time Skeleton had actually called Spider by name, without adding any kind of insult to it. Actually, Skeleton sounded tired.

Spider caught the quiet, pleading, but hopeless tone in his voice. The eight-legged weirdo had one of those moments you wish you had more time to think, but you don't, so you go with the first thing that comes to mind.

Spider could hear Herobrine clanking through multiple metals, like he couldn't decide which one to use, and knew he had to hurry. He slipped through the cell, climbed down the wall, and grabbed Skeleton before the said guy with the broken leg could say anything.

"What're you-" Skeleton started, but Spider shushed him.

Spider was sprinting as fast as he could, getting out of the cave just as Herobrine was coming back to where the cages were. The vampire grinned and walked to the entrance of the cave, and he could see Spider, with Skeleton on his back, sprinting across the plains. Herobrine chuckled to himself.

"Oh, Brother of Bedrock, can't you go any faster?! Spider, he's at the entrance already!"

"Some helpful set of eyes you are," Spider grumbled, "considering you don't even have any."

"Will you just get over that, for crying out loud!" Skeleton rolled nonexistent eyes. "You have four pairs of them, so shut up!"

"Do you _want_ me to drop you here? Don't tempt me, because I swear, I will leave you and your hopeless little ass to the mercy of that freak-"

"No, no! I'm sorry! Sorry, just-just keep doing what you're doing."

"I will, if you shut up."

"Okay! Okay, shutting up."

So, yeah, you could say that the Spider and Skeleton started off weird. (In my opinion, they still _are_ weird, but let's keep opinions out of this, because Herobrine has a particular opinion about me that I'm more than sure he'd like to share if we started that kind of thing, so, erm, let's not start that kinda thing, mkay?)

Skeletons are masters of mending themselves, and if they weren't they'd be pretty sucky potion masters, so, once Spider got him there, Skeleton got fixed right up. Spider simply expected to go on his way, and Skeleton simply expected Spider to leave. So that's what happened.

But it was more and more common that they ran into each other, and more and more common that Steve wanted to piss them off. So, it was more out of annoyance than any actual planning that Skeleton jumped on Spider and started shooting arrows at Steve. Spider would laugh, because Skeleton was such an idiot sometimes, but it was nice, having another pair of eyes, even though Skeleton repeatedly pointed out that he had plenty, and technically, Skeleton didn't even have eyes, but Spider told him to shut up and accept the eight-legged mob _trying_ (it's really hard with this Skeleton) to say something nice about him. Skeleton would grin. "Well, I have nothing nice to say about you, so, sorry."

Spider muttered under his breath. "I swear to the Mother of Minecraft, I will punch you in the face."

"With which hand? Or foot, or whatever?"

"Gods, here we go again..." Spider sighed.

"Which reminds me! Which one of those is like your hand or your foot? Or do you just call them all legs? Or arms? Or like, claws or something? Or are they just limbs? Like what do you call them?"

"We've had this conversation."

"Correction; you've avoided this conversation."

"Correction; I've avoided making you into bone meal."

"Correction; you've avoided attempting to make me into bone meal. Since you never have before, you would likely fail."

"I'm really starting to regret saving you from that vampire that other day."

Skeleton laughed. "Aw, I love you too!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now come on, are we gonna kick some player butt or not?"

"Was that supposed to be a rhetorical question?"

Spider rolled his eyes and gestured towards his back. "Obviously. Hop on, idiot."

"Okay, moron." Skeleton replied.

"Fine, skelly butt."

Skeleton shuddered, hearing Herobrine's voice say those words. "Don't ever call me that again, please."

"Please? Wow, the guy has manners."

"Shut up, and let's go kill some players already!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Skelly butt!"

"Ughhh!"

* * *

Yeah I didn't know how to end that, so, um I just kinda let them keep on talking.


	6. Coming Soon: Jessica Meets A Dark Angel

Heya people!

I posted a chapter on the interviews, which, yeah, are supposed to be over, and are, with my info so my twitter is no longer an empty void. It's probably still gonna be, but oh well.

ANYHOW, info below, so you people have it as well.

Also, do the world a favor, and stay awesome.

ONE MORE THING; (because I didn't wanna say 'also' again) I know, I know, this is hardly an actual chapter, but more of the prequel/sequel is coming. And mostly I'm stuck on names, because I'm not going to be calling people the Feather of Feathers and the Brother of Bedrock all of the time, because it's dreadfully long, and that's their title, they DO have actual names. I actually wrote them all down, somewhere...If I could find it, that would be great. If I can't, hey, you guys can suggest some, if ya want, cuz I'll use them if they work for the character. But yeah. OH, and I'm writing Jessica's chapter too, so, that's coming. I'm probably gonna call it something like 'Jessica Meets A Cute, Dark, Slightly Evil Angel', but that is a bit long.

Oh, and one more thing, that **contest** kinda thing I was doing? I changed the date, 'cause I wasn't even able to get on when I was supposed to, and not a lot of people have given me anything yet, and my story is still kinda new, so, I'm gonna change it to more like **3/28**, maybe later, depending on whether my computer is able to survive till then (bolded for your benefit. You're welcome).

Gmail username: minecraftinterviews7252014000

Twitter username: AnnaLuvsThg (because my friends -more like friend- calls me Anna sometimes, and because the hunger games are amazing)

And I have an insta now too and it's annaluvsthg.

Yay okay bye.


	7. Jessica Meets Trouble

Heya! So, I'm alive and all that. Thought I'd post something on April Fool's Day because it only makes sense, right? OH, and thank you to the people who told me how to do links. If you guys want 'em, I can do it again, but right now it's late for me so I'm gonna go to sleep after posting this. Kay? Kay.

Ch. 7: Jessica Meets Trouble (that's not the name of the person she meets I promise...although it would be a good nickname, totally match his personality)

Time: Before the Interviews, when Jessica is little

Location: Home of the Angels (I gave it an actual name, and it meant 'heaven' in another language, but it's buried under my earlier chapters from the interviews and I'm too lazy to go find it so I will get back to you on that)

Summary: Because of how angel time actually works, Jessica is just a child in this chapter, and looks to be only five. She encounters a kind of creature that she never has before, known as the Creatures of the Void. And as dark as those things are, they aren't even her biggest problem.

WARNING:

I am not responsible for any headaches, heartbreaks, tear-welling, mind-blowing, terrifying or confusing moments, and/or murders during the making of this story. Okay, so, fine, I'm a LITTLE responsible. Teeny tiny bit. Oh, and it's April Fool's Day, so, um, in the words of Herobrine (aka the most powerful and successful prankster of all time), BEWARE, and BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID. In my own words, just be looking for the annoying joke. It'll be obvious when you see it.

* * *

Jessica had never been so afraid.

She barely recognized the pain. At one point, it had been unbearable, but now, it was as if it were all she had ever known. She didn't remember what it felt like not to feel like her head was being split open. Her neck was prickling with a cold, icy fear that slithered down her spine, but could she even really remember heat anymore?

The faces before her weren't human, that at least she knew, but then, did she even remember a human face? The faces, if that's what they were, melted together. She saw pointed teeth and gleaming red eyes, or maybe even gleaming red teeth and pointed eyes. She saw muscled claws and ripped-open limbs, as the monsters tore each other apart to get a chance at tormenting her. The voices mixed and melted and so she only caught a few. What she did hear she didn't like, yet she had trouble remembering anything different. The hisses kept telling her there was nothing else but this.

But they were creatures of the Void; images of dark, forgotten people. They wanted her to forget everything, to lose her every memory and piece of her being. She didn't know what that would do, but she knew she couldn't let it happen. She had to remember, she had to…

* * *

**~A Little Earlier That Evening~**

Magic School For Young Angels and Magicians (MSYAM) had ended, and every other angel had already gone home. Jessica was still at the corner where she normally waited for her mother to pick her up, but it had been hours, and the small angel was worried. The only reason her mother wouldn't come is if she had other plans, and if she was, she would call someone to go pick Jessica. No one had come. Was her mother in danger?

Jessica had other worries; she was in danger, herself.

She knew that Void creatures were to be feared, but the chances of her being noticed was, in her mother's words, 'as likely as your father changing his mind. But really, just don't attract attention, and the things won't even see you. They're half-dead and half-blind."

Jessica couldn't think of anything that she had done to make them notice her. But once they had caught sight of her, they wouldn't look away. She stared back, not daring to even breathe. It was the most intense staring contest she had ever been in, and she had had one with an enderman. If it had been a real staring contest, she would have won a thousand times; all the monsters did was blink at her, while she was too afraid to do anything. They started inching towards her, which quickly became running. They started tripping over each other just to get closer to her, but Jessica didn't see it, because she was already running, smart girl that she was, with her heels chasing each other. Her feet made a tiny slap in comparison to the pounding of then hundreds of feet behind her. Jessica was faster than them, and she knew it. The biggest problem was she had no idea where she was going.

Her home town was a confusing place. Due to her 'lord and masters', the 'Saviors', the town itself existed, which Jessica thought they took too much credit for, but they didn't seem to have thought that making the houses almost completely identical would be a problem. Either they were really uncreative and boring, or they saw it as a joke. If they meant the latter, Jessica sure wasn't laughing.

The only difference between the houses was the numbers on the door, which Jessica could never memorize, especially when she needed it. Her house was either 2096, or 2069…or maybe it was 2960?

Jessica couldn't think straight. Her heart was pounding and her mind was spinning, but a lot of times it felt the other way around. She had no idea where to go, but she at least knew that the first number was 2.

She had just barely made it to house number 2000 when she realized and remembered; at every thousand, there was a wall, or rather, a gigantic door, that closed after curfew. Curfew was around 7:00 PM. She checked her watch, and a surge of panic ran through her. She had two minutes.

It gave her some hope as she was just reaching the wall, but then she saw them, closing, closing, slowly. The doors were closing up on her. She looked up, and saw the two guards at the top. One was whispering in the ear of the other, who was hurriedly closing the two gigantic doors below them with a crank. Both had the same glint of fear in their eyes.

Jessica panicked as the door closed too small for her to fit through. "No! No, please!"

The one turning the crank stopped, cupping his mouth so she could hear him yell, "I'm sorry!"

The other one swatted him upside the ear and hissed, "Keep cranking, man!" The other obeyed as he continued, "The kid's a goner. We can't let those things into Sector 2000; we've got important people in there. Just close the wall. It'll probably be a while before anyone finds her body. When they do, we closed the wall at seven exactly, and never saw the girl. Got it?"

"I…I…"

"Never saw her."

He swallowed. "Yeah, sure."

The door closed with Jessica still outside it. She pounded her fists against the grated stone, digging into her smarting hands.

Jessica's mind blurred as she whirled around. She sank in despair and in body until she was sitting on the rough gravel. She could barely breathe and her lungs burned ablaze, aching with a kind of emptiness, she was cornered with her only way of escape having turned on her, and she knew that any angels around wouldn't be much of a help. The voice, for them, wasn't whether or not to help, but rather to let a child die or to die themselves, and sadly, their answer obvious.

She barely had seconds before the pain would hit her. She did the best job that she could at making herself as small as possible, curling into a ball and had barely half a second to wait before it hit her. The waves and floods of pain hit her, and hit her hard.

The creatures of the Void were empathetic, Jessica soon learned, when it came to pain. The main reason that everyone was afraid of them was because they could share their pain. And everyone knew that no one suffered more than the creatures of the Void, always hungry, always thirsty, never helped, never aided, never wanted, never sated. The want and the need, that's all it took. Slowly but surely, it devoured them and left them in the dark, in the Void, and made the monsters in more dangerous, even less sane. The creatures of the dark that had started out in the dark eventually ended up back in the dark, with only one master to bow to. They didn't like him, of course, but no one really liked Danny, the Brother of Bedrock. It wasn't exactly a relationship of affection, but the creatures of the Void obeyed their master, and thus avoided utter destruction, and that's what mattered.

'M-Master isn't stopping us! Master isn't stopping us!' One of the voices screamed with glee.

And sadly, it was right. The creatures of the Void didn't stop, and the only thing that could possibly make them stop was their master. He had to know, of course, what his soldiers were doing at all times, so he knew that Jessica needed help. But he hadn't told them to stop. He was just watching, just watching…

A voice stuck out among the others, maybe because it was almost soft. All of them were harsh, and cruel, and loud, but this one was so quiet she shouldn't have been able to hear it, but she did. She hadn't left her position on the ground, her uncomfortable curled up state, but she felt something cold almost gently push her hair out of her face. 'Oh, what an innocent child. They love it, you know. The sweet sanity, the bitter pain. They love to savor the taste of it. They'll take every single part of you, Jessica Isick, and it starts with your name. Your won't remember your name tomorrow, if you live that long. If you don't, well…' Jessica almost felt the shadow fall over her as the thing leaned in enough to whisper, 'I've been promised the remains, which I admit, won't be much…but the blood will be mine. The blood screaming in your veins, screaming for a way out, for an escape…'

The thing kept whispering to her, but at that point, she wasn't listening anymore. All she felt was the pain, washing over her. Who was she? She was no one. She had to be no one…but how could she be no one?

Abruptly, to the point that she almost didn't believe it and needed a moment to register what on earth could be happening, Jessica realized the pain was simply gone. Just like that, all the hunger, all the want, the cold, the silence, the dark, the echoes, all of it was gone.

Except there was screaming all around her. Someone was screaming. Everyone was screaming. All of the pain that the creatures of the Void increased, she could tell, but she could no longer feel it. She didn't dare move until the screams ceased, and the silence was louder than anything else. After a few moments, she dared to truly listen.

She was suddenly aware of how uncomfortable the gravel was. Yet when she tried to get up, her hand landed on a stiff body. She jumped back, to find that she had touched a dead creature of the Void. Remains of black blood had gotten on her fingers.

That's when she saw him. The one who must have been causing them all to scream, the one holding a black and white, razor-sharp halo, the one with sweat on his brow and black blood dripping off his fist. She couldn't register a lot else of what he looked like, except his eyes were a bright, marvelous, endless, deep purple that truly only belonged to the enderpeople.

He extended a hand towards her. "Hi." He said, as if they weren't surrounded by tons of dead creatures and covered in blood. His voice was so human, so calm, so normal, it took a second for her brain to remember that she was supposed to respond.

"Hi." She muttered, and, instead of taking his outstretched hand, got up on her own. She tried to remember one of the 'bad' words that her dad had said, to try to make herself sound a little more sure of herself. "What the hell was that?"

"Well, that was trouble." He gestured around for effect. "Unhappy guys with very unhappy faces."

"And you just killed them." Jessica observed, before noticing something else odd about his wings. Every angel had a pair, of course, but his… "Why…why are your wings so black?"

"Oh, you noticed." He sighed. "Well, that makes this all very complicated. See, I'm a Dark Angel."

Jessica suddenly realized that she was far from safe, and that maybe her situation had gotten worse. She couldn't wrap her mind around it. "A…a Dark Angel. The Angels that…that kill stuff. For fun."

He frowned. "Well, that's one way to put it. I guess, yeah." He sighed and flipped his halo around, the rim of it white but the rest of it being pitch black. It was tainted with dripping, dark blood. "I really wish you hadn't noticed. I didn't want to have to kill you."

Jessica didn't wait. She backed up fast before she whirled around and started running, nearly tripping over herself in the process. The Dark Angel let out another sigh and then threw the halo with accurate aim. Halos were designed to lock onto their targets, so running had to be useless, but Jessica hoped-

.


End file.
